Xtra Factor host admits 'it's a lot a pressure' in wake of Liam Payne's death

It was reported yesterday evening (Wednesday October 17), that former One Direction band member Liam Payne had tragically died at age 31 after falling from his hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with police yet to confirm further details.

Having known Liam, when he was just starting out his music career in 2010, Konnie Huq paid tribute on BBC Breakfast and gave her account of what he was like while they worked together on the Xtra Factor.

Opening the discussion, host Naga Munchetty said: "Konnie good morning, you know obviously fans are waking up to this news, we heard around 10:30pm yesterday evening and there's a lot to digest. I know you would have been in contact with him when he was on the X Factor?"

She recalled a fond moment on the programme, later describing Liam as being one of the "mature" members of the group after he'd appeared on the show alongside Justin Bieber, with them all boasting similar hair cuts at the time.

Konnie, who presented the X Factor spin-off show, knew the group which included Liam, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson were going to be a huge success - even after they placed third on Simon Cowell's talent show.

She went on to admit to the BBC hosts that being on such a huge platform had been "a lot of pressure" on "young people". Speaking about his life, she said: "If you think that he started his journey when he was 14 and he was only 31 and really the majority of his life had been through this lens, it's a lot of pressure."

The ITV star went on to comment to hosts Ben Thompson and Naga: "Especially with social media and modern living it sort of heightens that pressure."

Ben interrupted with a probe about the music industry: "And Konnie obviously there will be questions raised about the duty of care in the music industry when it takes young people, as you said just 14, they have that meteoric rise to fame."

Ben elaborated further: "We were hearing earlier how he wasn't allowed to leave his hotel room because of fans outside, trying to get a look or a touch even of these people that they were huge fans of," before asking: "Its really difficult isn't it and I wonder if the music industry will look this morning at how it looks after its young stars?"

Konnie didn't have much to say on how the music industry will react to Liam's tragic death but did go on to blame "modern living" for making celebrity life even "tougher" in today's society, explaining that there was no way out once you were involved.

She said: "It's so tough because no matter what you do at that level you really cannot opt out at all, there's no resemblance of living a relatively normal lifestyle and the only way to do that is kind of to opt out.

"But this global world that we live in now, it's tougher and tougher. Young famous stars having this rock n roll lifestyle and dying young, goes back to, I don't know, maybe even James Dean but like I say with things like social media and the prevalence of the fast consumer culture that we live in, I think the problem only exacerbates."

BBC Breakfast airs everyday on BBC One, from 6am